2022 Vocational Training for Families

As we move toward the end of another school year - and look forward to options of continued learning through Summer School and Summer Vocational training - we celebrate our most recent Vocational and Skills training graduates! It was exciting to shop for tools for three of our youth who graduated from vocational skills training program to work in specialized construction areas. We have also had a recent graduate with a diploma in ‘Windows for Computers’ - at his graduation ceremony, Juno’s teacher spoke to his work drive and wise temperament. Then Juno gave a speech to thank LFBS for supporting his progress through all of his learning!

A group of 8 youth that we've been encouraging and working with, were able to join alongside our construction team and help build a family a home! It is not only a learning experience for these young men but also an opportunity to help others. The homes are built where the family lives…even if that is up remote mountainsides and requires carrying all of the building materials, tools, ladders, cement, paint, etc up steep rocky trails! The confidence and new found self-esteem from learning what you can do, can change everything. 

New crops, new market business! Our agronomist has been working to make parents of children in our programs more self-sustainable. This former street child is now able to help his mother sell cabbage produced in their own garden! We are thrilled to see the parents in our business start up program having such success! This is definitely a program we need to continue to grow - most children are abandoned into orphanages or end up on the streets simply because their parents don't have the economic stability to care for them. So empowering that these parents can help protect their children!

Sustainable nutrition is also the focus of our Agronomist as he works with families across the southwest villages. With crops once again growing following the devistation of Hurricane Matthew, we have been able to reintroduce livestock to our families there. We are so grateful for our committed staff who worked long hours over weekends to ensure families in the Grande Anse region received pairs of goats and the children had their school fees paid for the remainder of this school year! In April, we were thrilled to provide several reunited families in Pestel region with sheep. Once the animals have babies, the youth who received them will share their livestock with other families!

Medical supplies arrived in time to restock our small pharmacy. Medical patients of all ages are supported through our Outreach program to pediatric wards of local general hospital, home visits from our medical team and LFBS Medical Outreach Clinics. Along with the children in the villages and those in our care, we have children referred to us by IBESR (Haiti Social Services), Terre des Hommes, Ministry for Women's Rights, foreign doctors volunteering in the hospital, etc.

 Ensuring continued team and capacity building, we undertook a brief trip to Ile a Vache for LFBS staff. We were able to visit, firsthand, the Business Start-up Program our partners Haven Organization have created on the island, and also had the chance to do some team bonding and appreciate mother nature's beauty of their country. Additionally, 7 LFBS staff members attended Train-the-Trainer Micro Finance workshop to further strengthen their capacity in the Outreach work they do for small business start-ups and family self-sufficiency and sustainability guidance. 

Always happy to share LFBS work and inspire others around the world, LFBS Head of Operations, Morgan, and one of our Haitian staff traveled to Canada in April. While in Whitehorse, in Canada’s far northern territory of the Yukon, they met with supporters, spoke at Rotary Club meetings and schools and the videography team that will be producing a full feature documentary. Then on to Vancouver, British Columbia where Morgan was a key note speaker at Rose International Conference. The conference theme was Maintaining Compassion in a Fractured World. Morgan also led two breakout sessions focused on Cultural Competency and Sustainable Empowerment. Morgan was then key note speaker at Rotary District Conference in Michigan, where the organizers of that event noted that “We’ve never seen a speaker touch so many hearts as Morgan did today in all the years we have been attending conferences”.

 Thank you, our supporters and team members, for making this possible! Whose lives will you touch and change through your support and care? Follow us on Facebook at 'Little Footprints, Big Steps' and on our website at www.littlefootprintsbigsteps.com. 

Links:

• Introduction to Morgan by Ireland's Haven Organization
• Annual Report

We continue focusing on what can be done and celebrating what has been accomplished; on empowering and building the capacity of a dedicated staff; on including affected individuals, families and communities in solutions; on collaborating deeply with local organizations; on persistently moving forward – one step at a time –  and having the courage of conviction. Everything in the world that is accomplished starts with the decision to try. Your interest and support for Little Footprints Big Steps Child Protection Organization is in evidence daily as brave beginnings unfold.

In late December, we provided training for an additional 19 parents and 6 youth who are in our business start-up program. Along with the initial training for the group, there was a chance for some great discussions, exchanging experiences and ideas with each other. 

Each Christmas our staff as well as the children in our Safehouses prepare and distribute kits with hygiene supplies and food to all of the patients in the pediatric ward of the general hospital. Not only does this help the patients, but it also empowers the Safehouse children to feel that they can help others.

Recently, our agronomist and nurse visited the family of a former restavec (slave) who passed through our Transitional Safehouse last year and was then reunited with her family by IBESR (local Haiti Social Services department). We are so grateful for our dynamic team, for our partnership with local authorities, for parents who take responsibility for their children, and your support ensuring these changes can continue!

To ensure options and access to all areas of health care and preventative education is available to the children and families living in the 22 communities across Haiti’s southwest, LFBS can rely on the teamwork and partnerships that we have forged over the past years. Recently we were happy to assist a local volunteer organization called COSOFH, to provide a mobile medical clinic to the rural community of Randell. It is inspiring to see locals volunteering their time to make a difference in other's lives. Collaboration is key to having the greatest impact possible! Back at the LFBS office, our Doctors complete follow-up reports and prescriptions.

Since Hurricane Matthew we have been able to build Maxima prefabricated homes for over 21 families! Following the family’s participation in the base preparation and construction, each family chooses the colours they'd like to paint their home to make it their own. This also ensures the houses will last longer and have a protective coating against the elements. Homes built or repaired, crops planted, medical outreach clinics regularly underway, children attending schools, parents starting businesses, and the addition of livestock - the recovery and rebuilding of the families in rural communities, whose lives were shattered by the October 2016 Category 5 hurricane, continues in great strides through the dedicated LFBS staff, collaborative partnerships… and your support .

After a short Christmas break, Ysaac and Echenel are back to school and work in the far northwest city of Mole St Nicholas as apprentices with Sigora Energy Company. More milestones for youth in our programs, toward self-sufficiency, were realized over the past three months. One young man graduated from vocational trade school as a ceramic tiler; another former street youth completed hospitality training and is doing work experience at a local hotel; and two of the young women we rescued from vulnerable situations a few years ago, celebrated graduation from a Cooking and Pastry Arts class! They have overcome incredible obstacles, and it was inspiring to see them with such a sense of accomplishment and pride. THIS is the future of self-sufficiency in action! Thank you for your part in making this happen.

We were thrilled to have been able to be able to send an LFBS employee as well as an employee from Haitian Social Services (IBESR) to attend a critical international training in Maryland, USA  focused on Security Management in Disaster Response for Humanitarian Organizations.

Back in Haiti, youth leaders that LFBS works with have formed “Jeunes se Devlopman” or “Youth are Development”. Together with some of LFBS key staff, they have regular meetings discussing challenges, opportunities, morals, etc. Some will soon be undertaking construction training to be able to assist with home building and repairs.

  What remarkable movements forward will the months ahead hold? Whose lives will you touch, change, save through your support and care? Find out in our next Update! You can also follow us on Facebook at Little Footprints Big Steps.

With gratitude for all that you mean to so many.

Links:

• Annual Report 2016/17